UNITED NATIONS, March 17. /TASS/. Russia is concerned about the Islamic State militant group’s growing influence in Afghanistan and calls on the U.N. Security Council to work out a strategy to counteract this dangerous tendency, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday.

Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told a council meeting on Afghanistan: "We note with deep concern the rise of the terrorist threat in Afghanistan and the broadening of the Islamic State group's geographical activities which are spreading a radical Islam."

"We urge council members to develop a joint action programme within the United Nations to counter this terrorist group's growing influence," Safronkov added.

U.N. envoy Nicholas Haysom noted that the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan was concerned by the presence of Islamic State there but said the militant group's potential "to offer an alternative flagpole to which otherwise isolated insurgent splinter groups can rally" was more significant than its capabilities in the war-torn country.